This invention relates to a modular support assembly for growing tomato plants and the like wherein modules are added as the plant grows providing accessibility to the plant.
Growers of tomato plants, especially home grown plants, often utilize wooden stakes to tie up the plant as it grows and the fruit matures. Wooden stakes are difficult to obtain and depending upon the length and shape can be difficult to drive into the ground. The stakes can be the wrong height, may break if not strong enough and new ones are needed each year to prevent disease carry over. Physical limitations of the user such as size, age and the like are further impediments to the implementation of supports in general use.
Generally, prefabricated structures provided for supporting tomato plants have consisted of cylindrical wire cages staked into the ground. These cages do not allow ready accessibility to the plant because they are too tall or the openings are too small for the grower to gain effective access to the plants. Moreover, the wire cages are too bulky to be easily stored for use during the next growing season.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,179,799 discloses a tomato cage having three metal rods implanted into the ground, with a number of metal rings connecting the metal rods in a horizontal plane, and each ring having an increased diameter from bottom to top. U.S. Pat. No. 4,667,438 discloses a tomato cage having four support posts connected by vertically spaced horizontal rods. The structures illustrated in these patents are also such as to limit free access to the plants as they grow. U.S. Pat. No. 4,677,788 illustrates the use of a single vertical support carrying vertically spaced rings for supporting several plants spaced circumferentially thereabout but the support afforded each individual plant is limited because the support does not surround the plants.